Murdoch and the Cloud of Doom
|next = |season = 6|episode = 6}} " " is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the seventy-first episode of the series. Summary Murdoch is summoned to the Mayor's office, where he meets Mayor Clarkson and Chief Constable Giles. They play before him a film of a masked man gassing a dog. With the film came a poetic ransom demand for a 100,000 pounds, threatening to release the "Cloud of Doom" on man. Murdoch takes this seriously, to Clarkson's dismay, having only summoned him in hopes that he could convince Giles that this is a prank. Giles reminds the mayor that as chief constable, he can't afford to take any threat to the citizenry lightly. Ignoring means endangering an innocent person, as mentioned in the note. Murdoch corrects that the message is intended for the general public. Station Four is quickly assigned to track down the masked madman and stop his Cloud of Doom. While Crabtree and Higgins go over the film, Murdoch questions the blind urchin, named Rilee Flynn, who delivered the film, over what he remembers about the masked man. Brackenreid, unaware of the boy's condition, barges into the interview room before embarrassing himself. Murdoch later discusses the Cloud of Doom with Julia before going to see Dr. Sanjay Prasad, a skilled chemist, to seek his assistance in identifying the compounds of the Cloud of Doom. Crabtree and Higgins managed to isolate a strange shaped shadow in the background, which Murdoch deduces to be a hot air balloon. With information from the proprietor, Murdoch deduces the location of where the film was taken. Upon arriving, he and Prasad find bleached plants and dead rats as far as they could see. Drawing on their knowledge of chemistry, they guess that the Cloud of Doom still retains its destructive properties even as the gas' volume diminishes after being released from its container. But as a few dead weeds and animals can't tell them much about the gas' components, they bring one of the rats back to the morgue, to the discomfort of Dr. Grace. Dissecting it, she determines that the gas made their lungs explode violently. Another poetic letter is sent, threatening Cabbage Town. Giles suggests an evacuation, to which Brackenreid protests, as it is also where Station Four is. Clarkson is against it, as it'd cause a city-wide panic. Station Five, the fire department, provides Station Four with gas masks in hopes that they would survive the Cloud of Doom. To their chagrin, there's a limited number and some are broken. Meanwhile, Murdoch and Prasad meet with Rilee to help identify the smell of the gas from the masked man. Rilee explains that he smelled rotten fruit off of the masked man. The two men then head for the Junction District, as the doctor theorizes that chlorine gas, internationally banned in warfare because it killed inhumanely, is used in the gas, and the mysterious man has amplified with a mystery compound. Arriving the chemical plant, a worker, Russell Boyes, claims that an American man bought a large quantity of chemicals and gives them address. Upon arriving at the warehouse, they find they are too late. They find components of a time bomb, empty bottles of bleach and tank that Prasad theorizes contained the mystery compound, which may be a gas. As word of the Cloud of Doom spreads to the general public, Brackenreid sends his family to Niagara Falls under the pretense that his boys would want to see the falls. When his sons come over to the Station House for a visit and ask about the Cloud of Doom, he denies that anything will happen to him and shows them the gas mask. After his sons leave, Murdoch informs Brackenreid that a mask that filters out smoke will be ineffective against the Cloud of Doom. Brackenreid admits that he knows and advises that he not enlighten the constables. Murdoch is summoned again to the Mayor's office, where he is told that they are giving into the ransom demand and he assign Murdoch to handle it. At a meeting with the entire constabulary, Murdoch instructs the constables to go in their civvies and watch the dead drop incognito should anyone approach the money bag and restrict use of the police phones. However, they wait all day and no one picks up the bag. Murdoch then receives a call from the masked man, who claims to have seen the constables and demands a million pounds in 24 hours. Telling this to the Mayor, Clarkson says that the city can't come up with that amount of money in time. Giles demands to know how the masked man was able to identify their constables. Clarkson voices his suspicion that someone at Station Four is in cahoots with the madman, to which Brackenreid firmly denies. Murdoch then suspects that the masked man intends to carry out his threat, ensure that he could ransom the entire world. Just then, one of the mayor's aide tells him that they've located the Cloud of Doom. They find the canister sitting out in the open. As it would be dangerous to try and disarm it, they instead move the canister to the bottom of Lake Ontario. Clarkson pops champagne at Station House No 4 and commends everyone for their bravery. When he notices that Murdoch is absent, he and Brackenreid find him in his office in the midst of calculations. Murdoch explains that from the amount of chemicals used in the Cloud of Doom, he concludes that there are nine more bombs. With little choice, the constabulary moves to evacuate Cabbage Town. As Brackenreid assigns their districts, Higgins questions why evacuate the women's prison, especially with Mary Knowles due to hang for shooting her father in cold blood. Brackenreid tells him to carry out his orders. He then turns to Crabtree, telling him to go to Dr. Grace. They exchange words before Crabtree kisses her on the lips. As Cabbage Town is evacuated in a panic, Murdoch and Julia stay behind at the station house to insulate his office, Higgins enter to inform him that the phone trace has led to a public phone in the Junction District. This makes Murdoch suspicious, as it's near the chemical plant. He examines the ransom notes and the plant documents, noticing that the lowercase "t" has a distinct flaw on both. As it's impossible for two typewriters to have the same flaw, he suspects that Russell Boyes is the masked man. He and Julia go to confront him at his apartment, finding it empty except for the dog from the film, clearly alive, and trained to play dead on command. Murdoch then spots a photograph and realizes that Mary Knowles is Russell's fiancee. At the women's prison, as Mary is brought out, a disguised Russell comes in sporting one of his gas canisters. Everyone runs away in a panic as he attempts to help Mary escape, only for Murdoch and Crabtree to turn up, and reveal the truth. The so-called "Cloud of Doom" is just harmless mist and it was all a ploy to spare Russell's fiancee the noose. Constables arrest Russell after he shared one last embrace with Mary. Meeting with Russell at Station Four's jail, he notes the brilliance of his plan. He used pineapple extract to fool Dr. Prasad, bleached those plants and suffocated rats in a sack and scattered them about. Russell says that he couldn't let his love die. Murdoch calls on him for turning Toronto upside-down to free a woman who murdered her own father. Russell says there's more to the story, explaining that Mary's father molested her in her youth. That kind of trauma is what kept her from defending herself in court and contrary to what the press say, she does regret her actions. Murdoch sternly says that while Mary may have suffered unjustly, it doesn't absolve his actions. Russell says that regardless, it was all worth it to prove his love for Mary. He says that he would do anything for the woman he loves and asks Murdoch if he would do the same. Murdoch later discuss with Julia about Mary. Together, they decide to go to the courts to convince them to grant Mary a stay of execution so she could be coerced in explaining about her past. Character Revelations Continuity Historical References * The visual design of Russell Boyes' costume may be a nod to the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. Popular depictions of this non-lethal attacker-turned-myth from the 1930's-40's most frequently include a long black trench coat, black rubber boots and gloves, a goggled mask, and often a hood. * Brief Mention of the Hague Convention of 1899, similar to the more well-known Geneva Conventions regarding international rules of warfare. * Mention of New York school teacher John Doughty who proposed the use of Chlorine Gas to expedite the American Civil War and was subsequently denied. * The image of the shadow, provided to Murdoch by Crabtree and Higgins, distinctly resembles the CN Tower, and leads to them to speculate: ** Crabtree: "A tower, perhaps?" ** Murdoch: "I highly doubt that, George. What kind of tower would have a cantilevered bulge at the top?" ** Crabtree: "Well, I don't know, sir, but I think it has some aesthetic appeal. Perhaps the orb at the top is some sort of viewing area!" ** Murdoch: (sighs) "George, if such a tower existed in Toronto, I'm sure we would know about it." Trivia *Nobody actually dies in this episode. * George kisses Emily for the first time Errors *Detective Murdoch mentions to Dr. Prasad about the Hague Convention of 1899 and how The United States and Great Britain were the only two to not sign on the additional proposal for banning the use of asphyxiating gasses in warfare. The United States was actually the only country to not agree to this second additional proposal (Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Use of Projectiles with the Sole Object to Spread Asphyxiating Poisonous Gases). However, the first of the additional proposals (Declaration concerning the Prohibition of the Discharge of Projectiles and Explosives from Balloons or by Other New Analogous Methods), relating to what would be considered modern aerospace warfare, was not signed by The United States nor Great Britain. * Dr. Ogden says the term "teenagers" but that term didn't exist until the 1940's. *Julia mentions that the ransom note was written using "Baskerville font" which she said is very common. It is common but it is highly improbable that it would be ever used for a mechanical typewriter. Baskerville font is proportional (i.e., every character has different width) so it is not useful for the typewriter, especially the old mechanical one from the beginning of the twentieth century. Typewriter characters has to have the same width each, so non-proportional fonts (like famous Courier) are more likely to be used for them. Cast Main Cast Edit Edit Yannick Bisson as William Murdoch Hélène Joy as Julia Ogden Thomas Craig as Thomas Brackenreid Jonny Harris as George Crabtree Georgina Reilly as Emily Grace Recurring Cast Edit Edit Guest Starring Edit Edit Other Cast Edit Edit Gallery Murdoch 565.PNG|George and Emily's first kiss Murdoch 531.PNG|The video at the beginning of the episode Murdoch 567.PNG|Rilee Flynn being interviewed by William Murdoch Category:Season Six